Is Unlocking the Stellaris Tech Tree in Star Rail Really Okay? [299]

The Night Before the Parade.

All guests successfully arrived in Belobog before the start of the grand military parade. Leaders from various civilizations, accompanied by their families, checked into the Belobog Grand Hotel. Representatives who had gone out for sightseeing received urgent notifications and hurried back to the city.

Inside a suite, a young girl accepted a gilded invitation from her attendant and placed it on the table before her. Her heterochromatic eyes—one gold, one blue—swept meticulously over every detail of the invitation.

The message was straightforward and concise. It mainly conveyed that, as a gesture of gratitude for the visiting civilization leaders attending the Empire’s grand parade, the Imperial Governor and the Supreme Guardian of Jarilo had decided to host a state banquet that evening. The invitation extended to all guests, expressing hopes of strengthening multilateral exchanges, fostering unity across the stars, and envisioning a shared future…

The letter contained a lot of pleasantries, but the girl only needed a brief glance to extract its key points.

First, every civilization invited by the Empire had accepted the invitation, and nearly all the attendees were national leaders.

Second, the Empire seemed intent on improving its diplomatic relations—but whether this meant it wanted to engage in trade like the Interastral Peace Corporation or had other plans remained unclear…

Third, both the Imperial Governor and the Supreme Guardian of Jarilo would personally attend this banquet.

The other details were relatively unimportant. To the girl, the most critical aspect was the presence of the Imperial Governor and the Supreme Guardian. One of her main objectives in coming to Belobog was to meet the Empire’s representative and seek their aid.

She had been here for half a month already. Would she finally get to meet the Governor?

"Hah… finally."

Upon confirming the invitation’s details, the girl’s strikingly wild yet alluring features relaxed slightly. She muttered a somewhat unrefined expression before setting the invitation aside. Then, narrowing her eyes, she turned to the maid standing nearby—a young woman with a pair of pointed, beast-like ears. Her voice carried a commanding presence, one that naturally demanded respect.

“Prepare my ceremonial gown. Tonight’s banquet is our last chance. We can’t afford to delay any longer!”

“I understand, Your Highness. Please rest assured.” The maid hesitated briefly before adding, “But… do you think the Governor will hold it against us that Her Majesty didn’t come in person?”

The girl’s expression stiffened for a moment before she let out a sigh.

“Mother has been bedridden for three months now… all because of those wretched bastards. I… sigh. Hopefully, the Governor can understand our predicament and won’t take it personally… right?”

To be honest, she wasn’t confident at all. Whether she could persuade the Empire to help save her nation was still uncertain.

She came from a civilization teetering on the edge of collapse. The outside world called their homeworld Sterbe-I.

In the past, the Sterbe civilization thrived on vast, boundless grasslands. It was composed of numerous tribes, all living in close quarters. Due to survival pressures, smaller and mid-sized tribes would band together to resist larger ones, frequently engaging in small-scale conflicts. These skirmishes often resulted in tens of thousands of casualties before both sides halted to recover—only for the cycle to repeat itself.

This harmonious yet insular way of life persisted for over 1,800 years, until the end of Stellar Calendar 6249, when an armed group of unknown origin suddenly appeared on their planet. Without warning, they began capturing people.

The Sterbe people, having never faced a large-scale external threat, assumed this was an invasion. Setting aside their internal rivalries, the tribes united and mobilized their warriors, preparing to rescue their kidnapped kin.

However, before they could even launch their counterattack, the captured tribespeople were suddenly released in large numbers. To everyone’s astonishment, these people returned with an unexpected message:

The mysterious intruders called themselves the Interastral Peace Corporation’s Market Expansion Division. They weren’t invaders; they simply wanted to do business.

Those who had been taken explained that they hadn’t been mistreated at all. Instead, they had been subjected to a few needle pricks—after which, miraculously, they could suddenly understand the previously incomprehensible language of the outsiders!

And so, after a mix of coercion and diplomacy, Sterbe eventually agreed to engage in trade with the Interastral Peace Corporation. In return, the corporation officially named their planet Sterbe-I, a name that has endured to this day.

Sterbe-I was home to two major species: the Lepu, a wolf-like people, and the Rusha, who bore feline characteristics. These two species, in turn, were further divided into numerous ethnic groups. The corporation strategically assigned them territorial names, deliberately sowing seeds of division among the Sterbe people. This ensured that internal strife would make it easier for the company to manipulate them—allowing raw materials to be acquired at even lower prices.

During their stay, the corporation made a bizarre discovery. They attempted to identify and nurture individuals with the potential to follow a [Path], hoping to use them as leverage to influence local power dynamics. However, despite their efforts, they found not a single Sterbe individual who had awakened to any of the Aeons’ Paths.

The case was submitted to the Genius Society for further study, but even they failed to provide an explanation. Eventually, the project was abandoned, and the corporation resumed its investment in local infrastructure.

Initially, Sterbe-I had a population of 4.7 billion. Though they called themselves tribes, they functioned more like nations. The Interastral Peace Corporation rapidly introduced new goods, trading them for the minerals hidden beneath the grasslands. They also helped construct large-scale infrastructure, introducing fundamental technologies.

With this technological boost, cities flourished at an unprecedented rate. Tribal warfare, once a constant, gradually ceased under the corporation’s mediation. The rapid advancements of this period became known in history as Sterbe’s Golden Age, lasting for over a thousand years.

But then, 700 years ago, everything changed.

One day, the corporation’s local branch announced an emergency withdrawal. A Stellaron Disaster had erupted in a nearby star system, and the impending catastrophe would soon spread to Sterbe’s sector. For safety reasons, all corporate trade routes through the region would be permanently shut down.

With no certainty of what the future held, the corporation made an offer: anyone willing to leave could board their ships for free—on the condition that they sign a lifetime service contract. The company even promised stable jobs and a prosperous life for those who departed.

By then, Sterbe’s population had surged to 19.5 billion. Over 80% of them chose to flee, leaving their homeworld forever.

For those who stayed, the corporation arranged a colossal 150-trillion-credit loan, encouraging them to weather the crisis.

But no one had expected the Stellaron Disaster to be so devastating. Within a century, Jarilo-VI was completely cut off from the outside world—and soon after, Sterbe-I fell into total isolation as well.

For the next seven centuries, Sterbe plunged into a chaotic civil war, as factions battled over the resources left behind by the corporation.

Then, amid the flames of war, a woman of legend was born.

Her name was Sylvina.

A descendant of the once-greatest tribe, she possessed unparalleled strength and a host of strange, mysterious abilities.

Starting with one of the weakest tribes, she conquered and unified hundreds of factions in less than a decade. She erased the artificial ethnic divisions imposed by the corporation, forging a singular Sterbean identity.

Under her rule, the Sterbe Autocratic Empire was born.

And now, sitting in a luxurious suite in Belobog Grand Hotel—was her great-granddaughter.

The future fourth emperor of the Sterbe Autocratic Empire—Fia.

She stared ahead, her gaze flickering with a predatory red glow. The air in her palm twisted in an almost surreal manner before condensing into precisely formed ice cubes, which dropped neatly into the glass of beverage before her.

After completing this simple act, Fia turned to look out the window, murmuring to herself.

“Mother… why do I always feel that the Empire’s psionics bear such a striking resemblance to the abilities we gain from our family’s rituals?”

The royal family of the Sterbe Autocratic Empire upheld a tradition that had been passed down since the time of its founding emperor, Sylvina. Every heir to the throne was required to undergo a special ritual upon reaching a certain age.

For this ritual, a member of the royal bloodline had to sit upon an enormous stone throne. Only those who were acknowledged by an unseen force would be granted extraordinary abilities beyond the scope of ordinary people.

Fia had undergone this ritual at the age of nine. She could hardly put into words what she had experienced.

A voice speaking an ancient, forgotten language had echoed in her mind, accompanied by visions beyond her comprehension.

Though she had never set foot among the stars at that time, she saw the cosmos unfold before her eyes—countless fleets stationed in orbit around numerous worlds, poised to strike at the slightest provocation, leaving devastation in their wake.

Within these visions, she had also seen the very same stone throne—occupied by a commanding, formidable elder who gestured with absolute authority.

The people around him had been chanting something…

Void Mother?

Chanting something…

Great Khan?

Fia had no idea what these visions were trying to convey. But when she awoke from the ritual, she felt an overwhelming surge of vitality. As time passed, she gradually unlocked more and more strange abilities.

This was the Sterbe royal family’s greatest secret—one her mother had repeatedly warned her never to reveal to outsiders, even as she lay bedridden before Fia’s departure for Jarilo.

A treasure capable of granting unparalleled power could very well bring disaster upon us.

Fia had taken her mother’s warning to heart.

Yet, upon arriving in Belobog, she was shocked to find that nearly everyone here possessed abilities strikingly similar to her own—albeit far weaker, incapable of posing any real threat to her.

Even so, the revelation had shaken her deeply.

Her greatest shock, however, came when she met Pelageya, the young Chief Strategist.

Fia immediately sensed that the energy radiating from Pelageya was nearly identical to her own—so close in nature, in fact, that their quality was almost equal. And when Pelageya looked at her, the flicker of surprise in her gaze made Fia momentarily lose her ability to speak.

Could it be…?

Could the Empire also possess the same secret as her royal family?

“No… our royal powers cannot be unique!”

Fia found herself afraid to pursue the thought any further.

Her mother had told her that their family's throne—the seat of power that granted immense strength to those of pure royal blood—had been discovered by the first emperor, Sylvina, in an underground ruin littered with metallic wreckage.

Many had sat upon it, but only members of Sylvina’s lineage ever emerged with newfound abilities. Those deemed unworthy suffered violent seizures before inexplicably perishing on the spot.

This was the secret that had allowed the Sterbe Autocratic Empire to maintain its existence. It was said that Sylvina had been so powerful that she could break the laws of physics with her own body, her abilities capable of carving supermassive craters tens of kilometers wide with a mere gesture.

It was with this very power that Sylvina had led the Sterbe people in repelling the relentless advance of the Legion.

But… power fades with time.

With each generation, the abilities granted by the throne had grown weaker.

By the time it reached Fia’s generation, only their physical and mental strength had remained stable. Their abilities, however, had dwindled to the point where, at full strength, she could do little more than flatten a single mountain peak.

Lost in thought, Fia barely noticed as her maid finished dressing her in ceremonial attire. With a steady, regal stride, she exited the hotel—where a fleet of vehicles was already lined up, waiting to transport the visiting dignitaries.

Her gaze fell upon the young strategist in charge of arranging accommodations for the foreign leaders.

To her astonishment, Pelageya was looking directly at her.

And then, Pelageya personally approached her and gestured for her to follow.

As Fia stepped into her assigned vehicle, Pelageya softly spoke:

“Princess Fia, the Governor deeply sympathizes with your civilization’s plight. He looks forward to meeting you at the banquet.”

With that, Pelageya shut the car door and signaled for the convoy—bearing the Sterbe Autocratic Empire’s banner—to move out.

As the vehicles slowly made their way toward the Imperial Grand Hotel in the northern administrative district…

The girl sitting inside remained speechless, struck silent by the weight of the revelation.

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T/N: hmm I wnder what Fia looks liike

This is a fan translation of 在星穹铁道点群星科技树真的没问题吗? by 杏雨诗韵 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!